"Apple's Mac sales have slowed significantly since yesterday at 4 p.m. GMT, suggesting its back-to-school promotion is not boosting sales as much as expected."

Chowdhry said that the past 3 hours "were probably one of the slowest 3 hours for Mac sales" in the current calendar day.

Ha!

Quote:

Chowdhry, however, believes that Mac sales have been impacted by high gas prices, which he says have "made consumers more price sensitive." The analyst surveyed four university book stores, who reportedly revealed a "significant" drop in Mac sales over the last three weeks, though employees were said to be "optimistic" that sales will increase when schools reopen.

Chowdhry said that Mac sales at the University of Katmandu were particularly disappointing...

... though, a contributing factor may be that the U of K doesn't sell Macs...

"Swift generally gets you to the right way much quicker." - auxio -

"The perfect [birth]day -- A little playtime, a good poop, and a long nap." - Tomato Greeting Cards -

Global Equities Research also spoke with an undisclosed number of parents who reportedly indicated that this year's back-to-school promotion, offering a $100 App Store gift card, is not adequate. He said most parents would rather receive $100 cash back on education pricing.

Parents might prefer that, but the kids likely would prefer the free XBOX 360 they get with a Windows machine. Not only that, but for less money, they can get external speakers and a second monitor.

Kids care less about the luxurious finishes, the durability and the resale value of Macs. Given the choice, they want to play games and blast music instead.

A new, disputed report from one Wall Street analyst claims Apple's Mac sales have slowed significantly since the fourth week in July, suggesting its back-to-school promotion is not boosting sales as much as expected.

The rumors from analyst Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research were revealed in a note to investors issued on Wednesday. They arrived one day after a separate research note from analyst Maynard Um with UBS Investment Research said Mac sales are strong, directly contradicting Chowdhry's conclusions.

Chowdhry said that the past weekend "was probably one of the slowest weekends for Mac sales" in the current calendar year, citing proprietary research based on "various tracking data." Last weekend, he said Mac sales were "probably down" between 35 percent and 40 percent from the weekend of July 23.

The data culled by Chowdhry stands in opposition to Um, who said his own checks within the retail channel found that demand for back-to-school PCs has been "encouraging." He said on Tuesday Apple's Mac brand "continues to be the most popular among consumers and students heading back to school."

Chowdhry, however, believes that Mac sales have been impacted by high gas prices, which he says have "made consumers more price sensitive." The analyst surveyed four university book stores, who reportedly revealed a "significant" drop in Mac sales over the last three weeks, though employees were said to be "optimistic" that sales will increase when schools reopen.

Global Equities Research also spoke with an undisclosed number of parents who reportedly indicated that this year's back-to-school promotion, offering a $100 App Store gift card, is not adequate. He said most parents would rather receive $100 cash back on education pricing.

The analyst believes Apple should extend its back-to-school promotion by 10 days to Sept. 30, 2011, and increase the amount of the App Store gift card to $125. He also suggested that Apple offer its hardware protection plan through its application stores, allowing parents to use their App Store gift card to purchase an extended warranty.

If true, Chowdhry's findings would be particularly surprising, as Mac sales have consistently outperformed the rest of the PC market for years. Though he characterized Mac sales as "weak," no comparisons were made to sales in the larger PC industry over the last few weeks.

While Chowdhry's claims go against convention, it should also be noted that Apple did report lower-than-expected Mac sales in its previous quarter. Analysts on Wall Street believed the company would sell a record 4.2 million Macs, but actual sales came in at 3.95 million.

Last month, the same analyst said he expects Apple to launch three HDTV models by March 2012. He expects Apple to enter the high-definition television set market based on details culled from a number of developer events he attended.

Last year, Chowdhry incorrectly claimed that Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer would give a presentation at Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference. The analyst said that Microsoft would take the stage to showcase Visual Studio 2010, but that event never happened.

I think he's blind because just the opposite is happening and others have chimed in with the same report as Mac sales have surged upward.

What an idiot! Next quarter, when Apple AGAIN reports record Mac sales, they need to ask this guy about this report.

Actually, that's not news. For years, there have been cases of people underreporting Mac sales year after year after year - and never going back and admitting their error or correcting it. For example, here's one I did in the '90s.http://web.archive.org/web/199904270...agosta/spa.htm

Quote:

Originally Posted by AppleLover2

Unless your classes are unusual, about 4-6% of the laptops are Macs.

Not true. Macs have a much higher presence in higher ed than their worldwide averages.

"I'm way over my head when it comes to technical issues like this"Gatorguy 5/31/13

The study found that out of more than 1,100 potential tablet purchasers, an overwhelming 94.5 percent cited the iPad as a device of interest.

To the extent, if any, there's any here here, this could be a factor.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NZK88

indicated that this year's back-to-school promotion, offering a $100 App Store gift card, is not adequate. He said most parents would rather receive $100 cash back on education pricing.

"This same analyst, however, did not bother researching the educational promotion, which saves you a minimum of $100 on a MacBook Pro, and $66 on AppleCare in addition to the meager $100 gift card."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Damn_Its_Hot

Exactly. And depending on the model you can get $200 back along with the discount on AppleCare and the $100 Mac App Store card.

I think if Apple did anything wrong here it was in not advertising the educational discount more along with the gift card, but I am not looking for any king of significant drop in sales.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zandros

....it does that all-year round. Ostensibly, the back-to school promotions are intended to strengthen sales in what would otherwise be a less profitable quarter. If the promotion is not as valuable to the consumer compared to previous years, it could very well lead to a relatively worse quarter than last year.

Zandros has it right here - about the rest of the discounts pointed out by others being always available and this year's seasonal one being "not as valuable" parts at least - the actual sales results may be another matter with a) all of Apple's momentum on one side arrayed against b) anxiety about economies and markets and c) the iPad effect noted above). So we'll just have to see on that score. However....

....No matter how you cut it, this year's promotion is way lame-ass compared to what I got a few years back and feels almost arrogant - like "we really don't even to do anything anymore to move product, but it's a 'tradition' now, so here's a small sop - which will also just happen get your ass into our new app store where you'll probably spend more than a hundred bucks." Plus if someone uses the credit to buy, say, Final Cut, what's Apple's net cost? 30¢ worth of electricity for the download? Whoa, don't run down your bottom line, Cupertino!

I mean, as I recall, I got, a) the ed discount, b) a free iPod - AND - c) in a separate but simultaneous promotion - a nearly free fairly high-end Canon Pixma printer. I also seem to remember a third rebate, but it was a few minutes ago now.....

If sales are actually slowing perhaps it can be attributed to the 'yellow screen problem that some of the 21 & 27 inch IMacs are having.
In any case this can't beva plus for Apple and needs to be fixed

Actually, that's not news. For years, there have been cases of people underreporting Mac sales year after year after year - and never going back and admitting their error or correcting it. For example, here's one I did in the '90s.http://web.archive.org/web/199904270...agosta/spa.htm

Ahh.... That was you...

My wife and I sold our computer stores in 1989, retired and just played for 7 years -- burn-out -- hardly touched a computer.

Missed that whole Internet thingie...

Anyway, somewhere in 1997, I fired up the old Mac II with 15" Sony Color display (the one with the horizontal line down the middle of the screen) and my old white LaserWriter. Using a 14.4 KB modem, I took the first tentative baby steps to go beyond the walled garden of AOL and into the www.

I had missed a lot and spent days trying to get current... I remember the SPA dustup very well -- and was happy and proud that a fellow Apple/Mac user had nailed their ass to the grass.

Thank You.... however belatedly.

The post and the attendant emails, links make for good reading!

...everything old is new again!

"Swift generally gets you to the right way much quicker." - auxio -

"The perfect [birth]day -- A little playtime, a good poop, and a long nap." - Tomato Greeting Cards -

None of them (I mean none) have pedicured Apple quarterly sales of MACs, iPhones, or iPads within any reasonable margin of error for years. They also tend to predict universally low. They all have a reliable track record of inaccuracy. Why do any of them still have jobs? Why do they continue to use the same flawed methods?

These people posting data collected by calling a few local stock clerks should be imprisoned (or heavily fined) for passing this off as research and analysis.

... The second issue is that the dropping of the Mac Book and pushing of the AIRs is extremely stupid. The problem is that Apple no longer has a full performance low end notebook. I actually believe Apple was trying to shore up sales of the AIRs by dropping the Mac Book. ....

I disagree.

Apple still has a full performance low end notebook, in fact it has the best one you can buy for the money. It's just that instead of being made of plastic and costing roughly 800 it's made of aluminium and costs 1,000.

Your statement about "shoring up the sales of Airs," makes no sense at all. Macbook Airs practically fly off the shelves now. It's one of the most popular products they make and doesn't need any "shoring up" at all.

If sales are actually slowing perhaps it can be attributed to the 'yellow screen problem that some of the 21 & 27 inch IMacs are having.
In any case this can't beva plus for Apple and needs to be fixed

Speaking as someone who regularly deals with hundreds of iMacs (buying, installing, provisioning, etc.), I can say I've never heard of this "yellow screen" thing. It would have to be pretty widespread to affect global sales and while I don't disbelieve it may exist, it can't be affecting that many people or we would have all heard of it.

Apple still has a full performance low end notebook, in fact it has the best one you can buy for the money. It's just that instead of being made of plastic and costing roughly 800 it's made of aluminium and costs 1,000.

You kinda shot yourself in the foot here. You clearly indicate that their is a $200 + collars difference. That for a laptop that is a lower performing machine in many ways.When all is said and done the AIRs are very expensive for a college student.

Quote:

Your statement about "shoring up the sales of Airs," makes no sense at all.

Actually it makes perfect sense because AIR's weren't selling all that well after the early adopter rush. Mac books where still on Apples top seller list before they where cut, you can't say that about the AIR's.

Look at it this way the AIRs are excellent machines if you understand and can work with in their limitations they are not however replacements for the Mac Books. The additional capacity of the Mac Book makes it a much better buy for the average college student that needs to support 4 years of school with a limited understanding of what those 4 years might be.

Quote:

Macbook Airs practically fly off the shelves now. It's one of the most popular products they make and doesn't need any "shoring up" at all.

Rubbish. If this was the case they would have been on the top sellers list that sits right at the front of Apples store. At the time the Mac Books where cut the AIRs where nowhere to be seen. I see this as Apple trying to manipulate the market into buying the product it wants to ship, not what the market wants to buy.

Time will tell but i would not be surprised at all to find out this transition to AIR impacted education sales. The machine is a very poor buy right now.

Still things slip through. Sadly I've have had more than a few slip through myself. In the end you look at what has just came down from the web and you swear to yourself that wasn't what I just wrote.

On the other hand I look at what some of the autocorrections are trying to do and I think to myself, what the heck is going on, I'm only missing one letter here. Why is autocorrect completely rewriting my stuff. At times what autocorrect does makes no sense at all. In the end I wish there was a way for the user to adjust the performance or tweak autocorrect to better work with their writing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wovel

Lol, wow. I thought I found all of the autocorrects. I do kind of like that though.

I can't speak for anywhere else but only a few weekends ago during Tennessee's 'Tax free weekend', my local Apple store had put up roped lines and were assigning numbers to keep the crowd in the store down. Given the number of people I saw walking around the mall with large Apple boxes, I would never imagine there had been a slowdown of any type.

Actually it makes perfect sense because AIR's weren't selling all that well after the early adopter rush. Mac books where still on Apples top seller list before they where cut, you can't say that about the AIR's.

Rubbish. If this was the case they would have been on the top sellers list that sits right at the front of Apples store. At the time the Mac Books where cut the AIRs where nowhere to be seen. I see this as Apple trying to manipulate the market into buying the product it wants to ship, not what the market wants to buy.

Time will tell but i would not be surprised at all to find out this transition to AIR impacted education sales. The machine is a very poor buy right now.

Apple doesn't release sales data for specific models, and the top seller list on its website isn't much of a gauge since we don't know how accurate it really is, nor does Apple release any information as to how it is compiled.

We'll know for sure next quarter when Apple releases its sales figures. They slightly underperformed estimates on Mac sales, but iOS now accounts for more revenue and profits than OS X, so it may not matter, and Apple may be willing to let a few MacBook sales fall by the wayside, figuring that between iPad, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro, enough of those lost sales will be made up elsewhere. If we see a $999 MacBook Pro emerge, a price cut on the $1199 4/128 Air, or the return of the actual MacBook, then we'll know that Apple is reversing course.

Also, as others have pointed out, if the analyst went to stores comparing traffic the weekend of 7/23 with subsequent weekends, it will be skewed because of the pent up demand for MacBook Air and Mac Mini models, both of which were newly released that week (and whose releases were widely expected). Other analysts try to glean information from supply chain sources, including press releases and regulatory filings of known suppliers of Apple. If they see Toshiba or Samsung placing huge orders of NAND, it's safe to say much of that is going to Apple, for instance.

From Apple's perspective, it may be better to replace 500,000 MacBook sales with a smaller number of incremental MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and iPad sales. Margins on the MacBook probably weren't as good as the other models. They have kept it alive for now in the education market, but that to me is more akin to them keeping the eMac line alive a little while longer after they converted the iMac line to LCD screens.